Why did they file for bankruptcy?
- rising interest rates
- high inflation
- Difficulty hiring
- ongoing war in Ukraine
I'd consider COVID related matters to be the biggest driver of bankruptcy within the last two years. Interest rates, inflation, labor shortages are all a result of COVID lockdowns causing the government to begin printing money as a form of economic stimulation. All the meanwhile, businesses are forced to close down.
To the extent government can force you to close your business, I don't know what an entrepreneur is suppose to do to combat that. Being flexible with e-commerce might be a mitigating factor but that isn't feasible for a lot of businesses.
I think the real one to be blamed here is not the Covid-19 but it's the FTX bankruptcy because after this, other companies then follows its path. It was like there was a Domino effect that have happened. During the time FTX went bankrupt, the world have already recovered from Covid.
We should not defend FTX but the reason why FTX got bankrupt is already given and that is because the founder is playing carelessly with his costumer's funds. He did trading, investing, gambling and then donating some of it to the governments without their customers' consent. Speaking of the governments, they can only order you to close your business if it's illegal but if not then maybe the owners close them due to the effects of the recession.